


Don't Hike at Night

by DingleDongle



Category: HLVRAI - Fandom
Genre: Benrey is a cryptid, Black Mesa Sweet Voice, Cryptid love hell yes, Gordon is a big baby, Height Differences, Human/Monster Romance, M/M, Not A Game AU, Other, Panic Attacks, Slow Burn, They/Themrey, and a big dumby, cryptid AU
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-04
Updated: 2020-08-06
Packaged: 2021-03-06 02:48:08
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,506
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25706161
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DingleDongle/pseuds/DingleDongle
Summary: Gordon takes a late night walk, only to get lost and find a very talkative yet lonely beast.
Relationships: Benrey/Gordon Freeman
Comments: 45
Kudos: 194





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hey! I haven't written a fan fiction in YEARS, but after reading so many great HLVRAI ones and meeting some cool people I finally decided to write an AU I had in mine. I've always loved cryptid/human relationships so hell yeah here we go. PLEASE feel free to give any constructive criticism, thoughts, ideas, anything! Shout out to BroImLooking for beta reading, theyre a big cool <3

Tonight was one of those nights for Gordon. A night where he had been pacing around his apartment for hours, freaking out over everything and nothing. Thoughts flew through his head, forcing him to think about a million things at once. Every thought was a pointless, miniscule problem. But at the same time, these thoughts increased tenfold by every passing second. Gordon was trapped in his own panicking mind. He couldn’t keep doing this to himself, it was pathetic. These panic attacks, or whatever you want to call them, not even Gordon knew what they were himself, happened frequently. They messed with his sleep schedule immensely. He was tired of them. So, so tired.

He took a moment to stop and look out the window above his kitchen sink, where he had been previously splashing his face with water hoping that would somehow clear his mind. It was night time, and he could almost see the moon if it hadn’t been masked by the clouds. For now it was just a faint glow. Gordon sighed and ran his fingers through his thick strands of hair once more, and caught his reflection in the window. He glanced at himself and the many strands of coils that were poking out of his hair. He had a bad habit of messing with his hair when he was stressed. It was already a curly mess, but even more so after these late night episodes. There it was,  _ another _ stressor. He’d have spend hours in the morning fixing his hair. Gordon tried to ignore this problem and focused on the outside, whatever was out there. It looked so nice, so peaceful. He really wanted that peace.

He came to a sudden realization. He NEEDED to escape this, he needed to go outside. His apartment felt like a prison cell right now and he couldn’t stand it. Gordon glanced down at what he had on. He didn't care about his lazy attire; it was night time and it wasn’t like he was going to really run into anyone. So, he slipped on his shoes and put his frizzy hair into a ponytail. Luckily, he lived right by a hiking trail. He had gone there a few times before, never during the night though. He figured he knew the path well enough to go now, and if he somehow did get lost, Gordon had his phone. Yeah, this seemed like a really good idea. He internally patted himself on the back for this one. Nice one, Gordon. 

  


With a new and slightly improved state of mind, he left his apartment. As soon as he reached the sidewalk outside of the complex, he stretched and took a deep breath of the night air. It was cool, not too cold. It was good enough for Gordon, considering he was only wearing a pair of sweats and a hoodie. He stared up at the sky for a bit, and thought about how much prettier it would look once he reached the trail. Right, the trail. He adjusted his glasses and went on his way.

  


He reached the hiking trail within a few minutes, and he’d be lying if he wasn’t just a little bit intimidated by the dark woods before him. He reassured himself if anything bad happened, he had his phone. Just to make sure, he checked his phone’s battery life. Sixty-seven percent, it wasn’t dying anytime soon. Gordon was good, he was okay.

  


After about five minutes of following the dirt trail, he congratulated himself again for the idea. This was really nice. He wasn’t thinking about anything in particular, for the most part  he was admiring his surroundings. Only the sound of bugs and whatever other harmless woodland creatures were there. Well, he figured they were harmless. Gordon was sure if he stayed on the trail he’d be fine. Was he still on the trail? He looked down, too dark to see anything so he used the flashlight on his phone, accidentally flashing the trees surrounding him before looking at the ground. Yep, he was on the trail. Good.

  


He was a little bit more confident in himself, so he continued walking. He wasn’t too worried about the trail anymore and let his thoughts wander. Attempted to let his thoughts wander anyways, he didn't want to start stressing himself out again. As he was thinking, he remembered the sky. Right, he could look at it now since he was away from so many of the city lights. He tilted his head up at the night sky, a little disappointed he couldn't see much of it because of the numerous branches blocking the view. He moved around a bit, attempting to find a good spot to admire the stars from. Gordon eventually found a decent position. 

Yeah, this was good. He smirked, staring up at the scene. It was simple, yet really, really beautiful. He could admire it for hours and get wrapped up in some cosmic blanket escaping everything but the stars. Nothing would judge him, nothing would bother him, and it would be heavenly. Gordon rolled his eyes, there he went, being emotional. But you know what, it was fine to get emotional over this, he argued to himself. The stars, the night, it  _ was _ beautiful and it’s what he needed. 

He eventually stopped looking up at the sky and rubbed his eyes, getting a little bit of vertigo returning his gaze to the ground after being mesmerized by the stars for so long. He was calm now, he was finally okay. Things were okay. He could probably walk back to his apartment now and crash. Speaking of sleep, what time was it anyway? Gordon took out his phone, he wasn't even sure what time he left to go out, but he did know it was currently 1:32 in the morning. Sure it was late, but honestly he had stayed up much, much later before. He expected it to be around midnight-ish anyway, he’s just lucky it’s the weekend. He turned on the flashlight again to make sure he was still on the trail, which he was positive he was but it’d be safe to check anyway. 

He looked and saw leaves, sticks, grass, but...no trail? Gordon panicked, he had JUST been on the trail. The trail had to be nearby, he hadn’t wandered that far off, at least he thought. Before freaking out too much, he remembered his phone. His phone had maps, he was okay. He wasn’t going to be lost, who gets lost on hiking trails anyways? Okay, well, that probably wasn’t an uncommon thing, but they eventually find their way back right? It wasn’t that hard to find the trail again, if other people could do it so could he, what made him different? These were just petty things he said to comfort himself, he knew that. But, they weren’t unreasonable. There was no need to worry. He walked around searching for the dirt trail he’d been previously on. After about five minutes he still couldn’t find it. However, Gordon was persistent, he was  _ not  _ going to get lost. How pathetic would that be? Getting lost in the woods right by where you live? 

Five minutes eventually turned into seven, then nine, then twelve. He was sure now that he had only got himself lost deeper in the woods. Instead of being disappointed in himself he was pissed. He yelled at himself internally for not using the maps first, instead of looking around. Gordon had wanted to prove to himself that he didn’t need maps, because that would be embarrassing, he had just been on the trail. 

“Embarrassing to  _ who?? _ ”, he unknowingly said aloud to himself. God, why did he have to be so stubborn. Any normal person would have used a map.

Gordon shook his head, “Okay, okay, it’s fine. Everything’s okay...”

He was going to use his phone, which he should've done in the first place, but whatever. He opened the app, staring at the screen impatiently. He was waiting and nothing had happened on the screen yet, all he saw was a marker which was supposed to be where he was. Though, where he was hadn't loaded yet, all he saw was a never ending grid surrounding him. Attempts of consoling himself were becoming less and less effective as minutes passed. He noticed there was no service out here, but even then maps where still supposed to load, weren't they? He had really fucked himself over this time. He was lost in the woods, and was probably going to die alone out here and no one would ever know, all because he had what? A panic attack? He was going to die because of a panic attack? How in the hell does  _ that _ happen? He put his hand up to his face and almost clenched it as he groaned harshly. Nice one, Gordon.

He sat down, maybe he could wait until the morning. Then he could probably find the trail, right? If he had to wait until the morning that would mean he’d have to sleep in the woods though. He didn’t have anything with him, no tent, no sleeping bag, nothing. He was going to sleep completely exposed and vulnerable to everything. Not only that, but it would be extremely uncomfortable, but if being uncomfortable throughout the night was the only bad thing that happened during his sleep he’d consider himself lucky. Gordon wondered if he could scare off animals with his flashlight, or would that only attract them? He cursed at himself for being so stupid. What made him think going into the woods at night was a good idea? He hated himself for acting on impulse.  


This time he put both hands up to his face and stayed like that for a bit, angry at his dumb decisions. After a while he figured sitting around and feeling sorry for himself wouldn’t help. Maybe he could find the trail if he looked again? But what if he only got lost even further? Then he really wouldn't be able to find the trail, even with sunlight. He stood up, patting his sweats and getting rid of the leaves and dirt that had been stuck on them. He thought if he looked around only for a little bit and didn't venture too far off from his current location, he’d be okay. 

He turned his flashlight back on and turned around, right, okay, only look around for a little bit. Gordon walked slowly, and nervously. He didn’t notice he was shaking until he saw his flashlight jitter. He couldn’t tell if it was because of his nerves or because of the cold. Jeez, it had really gotten chilly. He let out a shaky breath, and tightened his grip on the phone. Being careful of not walking too far, he took small steps. He glanced around, keeping his eyes open for any kind of landmark, maybe a stump somewhere or a rock, but everything looked the same. 

  


The sky became less beautiful now, it was almost taunting him. He hated it, and the darkness surrounding him became horrifying. Paranoia grew on him the more he searched.  


While looking around, he saw glimpses of small yellow lights, which he almost didn’t notice at first. When he caught them he froze, was that an animal? Would it attack him? They quickly went away, and Gordon tried to come up with some logical reasoning. Maybe fireflies? Yeah, that would make sense. Nothing to be scared of. Though if they were fireflies, why were they only appearing now? He stopped walking and stared into the darkness, wondering if he’d see the lights again. A few seconds later, and-

Those were  **NOT** fireflies. 

Whatever the FUCK it was, it was NOT fireflies and it most definitely was something that scared the living shit out of Gordon. He was paralyzed only for a second before swinging around and sprinting as fast as he could. He tried picking up his legs, not wanting to trip on anything, but something told him whatever he did to try to outrun the thing behind him would be pointless. He could hear  _ something  _ after him. Over his own footsteps and heavy breathing, there were noises that weren’t his own. Despite that, he kept running, barely avoiding trees and having his face scrapped by any branches that came his way. 

He could hear the noises growing closer, and he wanted to scream. He felt like he was going to burst. Before he could open his mouth, something cold slammed against it and tightly gripped his face. He was pulled back, and something else had wrapped around his body. He was frozen. He was stuck. This was the end for Gordon Freeman.

_ Oh god, holy shit I'm going to fucking die. I’m going to be fucking murdered, I’m dead I' _ _ m going- _

“Could you chill out, please? Calm down?” 

The voice was monotone, and deep. Not something you’d expect to hear from some kind of..monster. Gordon’s entire body was stiff nonetheless, he’d never been more terrified in his entire life.

It spoke again, “What’s your problem, man? Shinin’ lights everywhere n’ shit..hurts man…” 

_ What the fuck? It’s fucking speaking to me? What’s going on, oh god, oh my- _

“Oh shit.” 

Whatever had been on his mouth was gone, and he gasped for air. He was in fear for his life, and no amount of oxygen was going to make him feel any less out of breath. He coughed, choking on his own spit after vigorously attempting to breathe. The thing that wrapped his body was still there and it was almost crushing him, he still couldn’t escape.

  


“Forgot my hand was on your mouth, yo you good bro?”

Gordon couldn’t find the strength to talk. He didn’t know what to say, he also didn’t know WHAT was happening. It didn’t seem real, what kind of cruel punishment is this? When was he going to be killed? 

“Helloo?” Jesus Christ, this thing almost sounded like some sort of teenager. What the fuck was this?

“I..” He wanted to yell at whatever this monster was, he wanted to scream and tell it to let him go but he couldn’t. He couldn't say anything. What would he even say?

“Lil’ baby can’t talk, huh? You a lil’ baby man? You kinda look like one bro.”

Was this thing fucking teasing him? What the hell? 

“Please..”, Gordon breathed out. “Please..d-don’t kill..me.” 

It took way too much strength to utter those words out. He had no idea what to say and he didn’t want to die. He really, really, didn’t. Especially not by this.

“Huh? Wuh?” The creature sounded genuinely confused. 

Was it not going to kill him? Was this some sort of sick joke? 

In an instant he felt himself being picked up and he screamed. He tried moving his body out of whatever was holding him. The more he tried escaping it, the tighter its grip was.

“Chill out bro.” 

He was turned around and he could see the lights from earlier. Except, they weren’t lights, but eyes. Bright, yellow eyes with slit pupils. The light they gave off barely illuminated the creature’s face, he could only see messy black strands of hair surrounding the creature. He saw movement in the face, and noticed their mouth had opened. 

Oh god, this was it.

Gordon closed his eyes, he didn’t want to see what was coming next. His body was tense, preparing to feel sharp teeth dig into him at any moment. 

Except, they didn’t.

  


After a few moments, he heard...singing. He would have admired how pretty the song was if he wasn’t positive he was going to die. Through his eyelids, he could see something bright. He slowly opened his eyes and saw a string of bright, blue orbs flowing directly towards him. They were warm, and somehow...comforting. Too comforting. He couldn’t fight the feeling overcoming him, no matter how much he wanted to. His eyes were now trying to fight to stay open, he was so incredibly tired. He couldn’t stay awake any longer, and he drifted off to sleep.

  


  


  



	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After Gordon wakes up, the creature finally gets to talk to him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for the support!! It was awesome seeing how many people enjoyed the first chapter, all the comments were epic :> It really motivates me to keep writing. Thanks again to BroImLooking for beta reading<3

The giant figure hovered over Gordon’s limp body. After it managed to make him fall asleep, the creature carried him over to its den. Years of sticks and twine all tied together to make some sort of shelter. It was their home, and they were proud of themselves for making such a cozy establishment. It wondered if the human would like it as much as they did.

Speaking of the human, they  _ almost  _ felt bad for scaring them last night. In fairness however, whatever bright lights he had scared them first. It knew humans couldn’t see in the dark like it did, they always had some sort of light on during the nighttime, and it was annoying.

After reaching their home, it realized there was nowhere to put the small body- well, small compared to their tall, twig-like figure. The den was only big enough for them alone and some of its random items they collected over time. They glanced over at their collection; without it they would have a place to put the body. It shook its head at the thought. No way were they going to get rid of any of those, they were priceless. But right by the horde was their nest. It knew humans did sleep on  _ something,  _ just like they did, so maybe the nest would be good enough. It was quite comfortable too; a bundle of leaves, grass, and fur all piled up to make one soft heap. 

They set the body down and waited. It couldn’t help but to stare. How long has it been since they’ve seen another person? Years? How long were years anyway? They kept thinking of questions to ask the person when they awoke, so, so many questions. Their tail began to wag out of excitement before they quickly held it down so nothing would get knocked over. Ugh, that thing was annoying. 

They sat by the nest; criss-crossed and continuing to stare at the sleeping man. He had very curly, messy hair held up in a ponytail. It knew what those were at least, they had seen humans with those plenty of times. It even had a few hair ties in its collection. They also knew what glasses were, which the person also had. They looked uncomfortable on his face while he slept, but maybe that was normal. He had a lot of hair on his face too, which was strange. They hesitantly ran their finger over his beard. It felt coarse, but they thought the look suited him. They unknowingly started stroking their own chin.

He had been sleeping for hours by now, and the creature was growing impatient. The sun was even beginning to rise, which meant they should have already been asleep by now. They huffed, no sleep today they guessed. It had been watching him sleep the entire time. Now thinking about it, they weren’t even sure why they put him to sleep. The human obviously didn’t want to be around them, but it decided they could give him a reason to stay. Maybe they could even be friends. That would mean it would have to be nice, which felt awkward. Having friends was an extremely foreign concept. It could hardly befriend any of the animals in the woods, none of them even talked back. They usually just killed animals for food anyway. 

It would be so exciting to have someone actually talk back to you. What would they even talk about? What do HUMANS talk about? They apparently really like clothes, since they never went anywhere without them. Though it was very weird, it was sure there was some reason for it. 

That’s another question they would have to ask. The more they thought about the endless conversation opportunities, the more excitement had grown in their chest. Being too lost in their daydreams, they hadn’t even noticed their tail wagging again. 

… _ THUNK _

A puff of dirt flew up into the air, making the beast cough. It softly growled to themself, they  _ KNEW _ that was going to happen, stupid tail. They picked up the log of wood that had fallen from their collection and put it back in place. Before turning back around it heard a loud gasp. Uh oh. 

Quickly thinking of something nice to say, it exclaimed, “GOOD MORNING!!”

“ **_AAAUUUUGGHHH!!!_ ** ”, the man replied.

Well, that didn’t sound too well. At least they tried sounding friendly.

“WHERE THE HELL AM I!? WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU!?” 

Wow, he was much more talkative in the mornings. Is this what you call a morning person? They heard that term before, maybe he could ask him about it. After the screaming. 

“Calm down, please? What’s your problem?” His yelling was hurting their sensitive ears, maybe they could use their Sweet Voice again. (That's what they liked to call it, even came up with the name themself.) The creature opened their mouth and began to sing, just like they had last night. It made sure it wasn’t enough to make him fall asleep.

“...What the fuck?”, he asked. This time in a much quieter voice.

“Feel better now, you big- you big  _ cry baby _ ?”

The human looked at them, more confused than scared now. Had it said something wrong? Probably not, they knew English quite well. However, it still wanted to talk to them, so they started up a conversation. 

“Hellooo?”, It said waving their hand in front of the person. He didn’t seem to like that, as his face began to scrunch up even more. Woops.

“Where....what are you…?”, he hesitantly asked.

“Benrey.”

Despite the Sweet Voice, his chest was rising up and down rapidly. “Okay...Benrey..”, he breathed out. He slowly nodded and opened his mouth to say something else, but quickly closed it.

“Uhhh..” Benrey wanted to continue the conversation but wasn’t sure how. Oh! The human- he must have a name too they thought.

“What's  _ your _ name?” 

“It’s uh...I’m Gordon.” 

Gordon seemed like he was having a hard time talking, Benrey wasn’t really sure why. They were having a normal conversation, like humans did. Gordon was probably still scared. Which would be strange, since Benrey had been friendly this entire time. 

Gordon started to speak again, “Where are we?”

Okay, well, THAT was a dumb question. It was kind of obvious, thought Benrey. 

“My home, you like it?” 

Gordon glanced around the place, he looked unsure of what to say so Benrey said something.

“Yup, made it alllll by myself”, Benrey announced proudly. They motioned towards their collection, “I got all these cools too. My prized collection.” The grin on their face was wide, they could finally show all their awesome stuff to someone else. Gordon would probably appreciate it. Speaking of Gordon, he was being really weird.

“Why are you so quiet, bro? Something wrong? Uh...cat... _ cat _ ate your tongue?”, Benrey unknowingly teased. They wondered if Gordon would be impressed by their knowledge of English terms. Probably. It was pretty cool. 

He groaned, “I just want to go...home” Gordon paused for a second and looked down, “Also if you’re going to eat me or something...can you just get it over with?” His voice was shaky.

What was he TALKING about? Eating Gordon? A potential friend? Benrey wasn’t dumb, of course they weren’t going to eat the guy. The question disappointed Benrey; they thought the two of them were making progress. Talking to people was hard.

“Wuh? I'm not going to eat you, bro. Huh?” 

“Okay...then what do you want with me?”

Another dumb question, he had a lot of these didn’t he? Didn’t humans ever talk just for the sake of talking? They were more complicated than Benrey had thought.

“Talk..with you?”

Gordon slightly shook his head and shot another confused look at Benrey. “What? I want to go home, man…”, he sighed. Gordon tried standing up from the nest and hissed in pain before quickly sitting back down.

“Oh shit. You okay?”, Benrey looked at the man. He had his hand on the side of his stomach. Uh oh. Was he hurt?

“I, uhm, yeah...I actually think I have a bruise from last night.”

“What were you doing last night, bro?”

“What-WHAT do you mean what was I doing? You were THERE.”

Well, they  _ did _ meet last night, but Benrey didn’t hurt Gordon. All they did was pick him up and take them to the den. Gordon was being really, really dumb.

“Look. I need to go home. Do you know where the city is from here?”

Huh? He already wants to leave? Gordon was being kind of rude, honestly. Benrey didn’t HAVE to take him to their place, but they did anyway. They could have eaten him instead. There was no way Gordon was going back to the city. They had only begun talking, and there were still so many questions they needed to ask.

“...No.”, Benrey glanced to the side. They lied, but it was definitely for a good reason. There was no way they were going to miss this opportunity to talk to another person.

“I mean, if you’re by the trail...then you must be near the city. You sure you haven’t like, seen it? 

Heard cars or something?”

“I...uh. Nope.”

“Uh-huh..”, Gordon gave Benrey a suspicious look. “Listen, I can't stay...here, wherever this is.”, he motioned his hand around the den. “I need to go back. I won’t tell anyone about you, okay?”

Why couldn’t he stay? What did he have to do that was more important than talking? Also, why wouldn’t he tell anyone about them? Gordon couldn’t keep everyone to himself, Benrey could talk to Gordon’s friends too if they wanted. He was being selfish.

“Wuh? Why do you need to leave so soon, bro? Got uh...HUMAN things to do?”

“Well, uh, yeah actually. I’m a human, if you haven’t noticed.” Gordon stood up again, but slower this time. He breathed in through his teeth before stepping off of the nest. 

“Where you goin’?”

“I need to get back to my apartment.”

“...No?”

“Uh, yes?”

Benrey made a whining noise, and Gordon raised his eyebrows.

“You uh...we’re FAR from the city...and you’re never gonna reach it. Unless I come along, which I’m NOT going to do. ‘Cuz you’ve been mean. A big meanie.”, they huffed.

Gordon let out a nervous chuckle, “How have  _ I  _ been mean? You-”

“You don't even wanna talk, bro. You know how-how LONG it’s been since I’ve talked to someone? A long, uh, years.”

Something seemed to click in Gordon’s mind, and he sat back down on the nest.

“Okay...so. If I talk to you, will you help me out?”

Benrey grinned and nodded. Their tail started twitching; threatening to wag again. 

“Alright, then. What do you wanna talk about?”


End file.
